https://www.science.org/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.112...
A couple decades ago, I stopped running on concrete or asphalt, and took up trail running, i.e. running on (mostly) dirt. It feels way easier than running on asphalt, much less on concrete. If you're skeptical that running on concrete or asphalt feels harder, give it a try. YMMV, but I'd bet you notice a difference.
And yes, I do fall sometimes, tripping over roots or rocks. But I recover quickly.
I've come to think it's because the trails challenge those stabilizers sufficiently so they get trained properly rather than... I don't know, repeatedly being irritated by running too straight for long periods of time?
I'm not a kinesiologist so I have no idea what the real difference is, but I do know I get hurt far less on the trails than I did on pavement.
One possibility is that I go slower overall so I can't push the limits of some muscle and tendon groups like I could on pavement. Everything gets more equally pressured, but less on average.
This sort of automatically limits how far in front of your hips you can land your foot. But then the next step is to change posture and “lean forward” so that it feels like you’re just barely catching yourself with each foot before falling on your face.
The goal is to have your foot land directly under you, then use your quads and glutes to push your foot backward, to create or maintain your forward momentum.
You’re still getting almost all of the cardio benefits, and over time you’ll get more comfortable going faster on different surfaces, just from practice.
The form i use basically the “natural” running style. Land with your body over your foot, land on your foot flat or on the ball. This is good for trail running because it’s much easier to not commit to a step when you’re not planting hard with your heel.
I’ve never sprained an ankle trail running, not that it can’t happen. I’ve gone like 90 degrees on my ankle before but I can usually unweight and collapse on that leg and catch myself on the other leg and keep running. I run in sandals and I backpack in trail runners.
Trail running strengthens your ankles what with all the uneven ground that has to be compensated for.
Important to note the point is "trail running" not "alpine running", gravel and dirt vs, steep inclines and big rocks.
Anecdotally, just adjust your pace/length until you're comfortable. I've always done mixed asphalt/dirt-trail and there is a notable difference in my knee fatigue when there is a bigger ratio of one or the other, would always prefer a nice gravel or dirt over the road.
Sometimes, you should just focus on going straight, or at least keep your center of mass relatively going in a smooth line.
Yes, sometimes that means going through a puddle or do a small jump, but I find it much safer. Of course, on a potential slippery surface, try to make that 1 step lower impact, basically like an in-between step. This can also imply vary big changes to your cadence, which is not always optimal from aerobic perspective.
The most important thing imo is to find a form of cardio you enjoy. It's not worth stressing over the differences between forms of cardio just find something you like and make it a part of your lifestyle.
Reagarding knee injuries, sure intense running with bad form is more likely to get you an overuse injury but those heal quickly, long term studies don't show increased knee/hip risk for runners.
Strength exercises are also very important for runners. Getting all the muscles arounf your hips, knees and ankles stronger significantly reduces the chance and severity of injuries and has a ton of other benefits.
Typically you sit on the part in front of your hip, which also has its downsides as it is quite a delicate area where pressions on the wrong area could lead to issues.
I was a cycling maniac for some time. It fucks one up (knees, back, elbows) anyways. After 10 years of that I cut it down to occasional pleasure rides. Luckily all my pains had stopped after a couple of years.
The body, including bones, muscles, tendons and joints, adapt to stress. Many people do too little, not too much, as they get older.
There’s a limit to that recovery of course, and balancing it with stress is not always simple.
It can be difficult to fix too as once your knee is sore it takes ages to come right so it’s not clear if adjusting the cleat is working.
This is stupid (saying that as an ex elite road, track and cyclocross racer).
I’ve never tried real cleats, I just use mounting biking ones, spd. Doubled sided pedals seem easier in traffic and I use them for a decidedly non-pro 2-300km a week.
Also avoiding using your domotics, motorized vehicles, elevators and escalators, kitchen/cleaning robots/electric devices when there are manual replacement as well as not using domotic, does a super job on its own.
People have become lazy, pretend they don't have time to do stuff, then have to actually dedicate additionnal time so that their body doesn't suffer from their lazyiness. This is bonkers.
One day my brother saw me shirtless and asked me if I was going to the gym. I said no, I just have 2 young kids, carry my groceries including cat litter by foot, use a shovel to clear snow, use a manual coffee grinder and kitchen whisk and only use my car when it would take me more than 1 hours / 30kms by bicycle, etc. And I had an office job. Being active, fit and healthy shouldn't involve having to "exercise".
This what they all say to sell "custom fit" services. I now how to fit and have access to pro level fit rig.
I read a book my Michael Colgan at the time, and he mentioned training athletes on the trails as much as possible to reduce injury, so I gave it a try ...
That was 25+ years ago. At first people looked at me strange, like I was running from an animal. But its common now, and I'm still running on the trail, and knees seem OK.
Yes of course, you can still trip, step on a snake, etc, but its a different kind of injury. You are adapting gait and balance constantly which is nice too.
Running on the trail is much more interesting, with constant change, ups, downs, variations. Whereas running on grass / asphalt I can go into autopilot mentally and start ruminating, this is harder on the trail and I am more in a state of "here and now".
5+ years ago when I was looking for another injection, my PCP said "Well, time for a hip replacement." Now, for reasons I don't understand I think he was being way premature on that (everyone I'd talked to prior to that had said I should wait as long as I can, and it'd been 2+ years since my last shot).
But I'd pretty much accepted that hip pain was just a part of my life, (especially in the morning) picking something off the floor was painful, just walking and in particular walking stairs was just a little painful.
A few weeks ago I tried some stretches I saw on Youtube shorts. Like a minute a day. It's like I've got new hips.
I've never been a very "compliant patient" when it comes to stretching, but that was mostly because I saw no benefits from it. But this one stretch was like a miracle!
We were told this was because it used to be that they could only do the hip replacement surgery once, and the replacement joint would only last around 20 years max.
So basically it had to be for the expected life span of the patient!
But now this is no longer true. Well, in Australia at least with access to modern replacement parts, surgical techniques and specialists!
I could be muddling it up a bit, so happy to be corrected :-)
I had a football injury when I was 13 that badly damaged my knee meniscus (though I didn’t know it at that time). At 16, I had a complete menisectomy - total removal of the lateral meniscus in my right knee
I was told that I would need to get a transplant and/or new knees in 10-15 years. I was also told that I shouldn’t put too much strain on the knee
I’m now 38 and my knee is mostly…fine. I can run, squat a reasonable amount of weight, walk for miles. Only thing I can’t do is fast directional changes (like in football) or bending down on the lateral side of my right knee
My plan is to extend this as long as possible and hopefully in 10 years, they’ll have tech to fix this for good
Not the "I'm going to bench 200lbs" type strength, but the musculature that supports movement.
It's quite easy to always focus on stretching, but not build the muscles that support good movement. You can turn yourself into a floppy noodle, which brings on more injury.
If your insurance covers it, go see one! Them being able to actually see and feel what's going on specifically with you makes them markedly better at their jobs.
But on the plus side, physiotherapy is “free”, has no real risk, and most people who opted for the physiotherapy path found that they were happier and also fixed a lot of other pains simply because of regular stretching and exercise
"Frog Mobility" -- Get on hands and knees, spread knees but keep your feet closer together, rock back towards your heels and forward.
"Frog Cat/Cow" -- Same position as above, but tilt your pelvis; curve your back up then down.
"Tactical Frog" -- I haven't done this one yet, but it is frog mobility but with each rocking forward twist one of your feet up into the air; IOW rock back then as you rock forward keep one knee locked so that your calf/foot stays in the same relative position as you move forward.
10ish years later I had started riding my bike a lot during the dotcom explosion induced downtime, I kept it up after I was employed again. Knee pain came back. Went to the ortho again, this time was told "oh you have a torn meniscus, lets go fix it.
So I went under and woke up to be told that my meniscus was fine, and that I had worn grooves through the cartilage and into the bone - doc told me to never run, jump, ski, ride, etc. I was to sit on the couch.
Somehow I ended up taking karate, and the knees hurt for a bit, but the stretching we did helped loosen up my hams and quads. It didnt make the knee pain go away, but it made it tolerable in that it no longer affected my day to day.
"A bioactive supramolecular and covalent polymer scaffold for cartilage repair in a sheep model" - https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2405454121
"Abstract: Regeneration of hyaline cartilage in human-sized joints remains a clinical challenge, and it is a critical unmet need that would contribute to longer healthspans. Injectable scaffolds for cartilage repair that integrate both bioactivity and sufficiently robust physical properties to withstand joint stresses offer a promising strategy. We report here on a hybrid biomaterial that combines a bioactive peptide amphiphile supramolecular polymer that specifically binds the chondrogenic cytokine transforming growth factor β-1 (TGFβ-1) and crosslinked hyaluronic acid microgels that drive formation of filament bundles, a hierarchical motif common in natural musculoskeletal tissues. The scaffold is an injectable slurry that generates a porous rubbery material when exposed to calcium ions once placed in cartilage defects. The hybrid material was found to support in vitro chondrogenic differentiation of encapsulated stem cells in response to sustained delivery of TGFβ-1. Using a sheep model, we implanted the scaffold in shallow osteochondral defects and found it can remain localized in mechanically active joints. Evaluation of resected joints showed significantly improved repair of hyaline cartilage in osteochondral defects injected with the scaffold relative to defects injected with the growth factor alone, including implantation in the load-bearing femoral condyle. These results demonstrate the potential of the hybrid biomimetic scaffold as a niche to favor cartilage repair in mechanically active joints using a clinically relevant large-animal model."
Collagen synthesis in the human body can be aided by hydrolyzed collagen, Vitamin C, zinc and copper.
https://massresearchreview.com/2025/09/29/connecting-the-dot...
I have been taking collagen, but will likely stop.
e.g. https://thefeed.com/products/pillar-performance-collagen-1?v...
But I agree, I'd rather start solving deficiencies at the diet level than the supplement level and haven't integrated collagen personally so far.
TBH I suspect marketing plays a big role. "Collagen = good, therefore just buy it and eat it" makes logical sense if you don't actually do any research first.
I made spaghetti bolognese last night and it had 60 grams of protein per 800 kcal serve. Admittedly I used lean kangaroo mince, because I'm Australian and it was on sale. Still: three meals like that and you wouldn't even need a protein shake.
Also complete protein sources are definitely not easy to get. Good luck if you have dietary constraints.
Also, only animal sources contain hydroxyproline amino acid in significant amounts, which you pretty much only get from collagen sources.
So while quinoa and other like even whey might advertise themselves as complete protein sources, no, they do not contain all the amino acids humans can use in significant amounts.
> You need to eat a ton of quinoa
Most don't: at 4.4% protein, a 65kg man like me needs 1.5kg of cooked quinoa per day and it's not a big deal:
- You'll digest it like a king: quinoa is full of soluble and insoluble fibers and you won't feel puffy for eating too much. Easy in, easy out.
- Like milk or wheat, there's many transformations possible like flour, flakes, marinades, beverages, soups... alway a joy to cook and eat, no boredom with that grain.
Can't speak for the bodybuilders though but I'm sure most manage they nutrition. I think soy/pea is more popular.
By the way, very few eats only quinoa or any other single aliment. They also get amino acids from grains, pulses and seeds... even fruits like tomatoes but it's obviously negligible.
Quinoa is also fulled with minerals, vitamins and it's proteins have the same biological value (BV) as beef - or more depending on the source.
> its high-quality protein, complete set of amino-acids, and high content of minerals and vitamins. [0]
> exceptional balance between oil, protein and fat [1]
> Quinoa has a high biological value (73%), similar to that of beef (74%) [2]
0 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15528014.2022.2...
1 https://scijournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jsfa...
2 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303845280_Quinoa_Ch...
... all of the essential amino acids? What is difficult about that?
they have MRIs, decent experimental evidence, and biochemical explanations.
They have published quite a few papers over the years.
You can start here, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9267994/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5183725/
Look up Keith Baar.
However neither link seems to have anything to do with UC Davis or biochemical mechanisms related to collagen supplementation. I realize that it probably wasn't your intent but the mismatch leaves me feeling vaguely as though you tried to deceive me there.
I don't remember the exact link for the biochem stuff. Something about collagen being glycine limited and vitamin C being a catalyst for synthesis for tendon tissue regrowth.
Here are the two papers I remember reviewing.
This is my biggest apprehension. I've become quite a good guitarist, and I know that can't last forever. Getting my accomplishments in while I can.
2: Developing a capacity or facility is an accomplishment regardless what purpose it's put to.
Trying to tell someone they don't have the right attitude based on something they didn't even say was an interesting way to profess joy.
https://justinholmes.bandcamp.com/album/vowel-sounds
Second record in progress:
My hope to pull another 15 years of functional use out of it, enough to do fun activities with my son.
https://www.science.org/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.112...
It identifies the compound used as SW033291. Searching for it on clinicaltrials.gov gives no hits.
> Human knee tissue collected during joint replacement surgeries also responded positively to the treatment. These samples, which include both the joint’s supporting extracellular scaffolding, or matrix, and cartilage-producing chondrocyte cells, began forming new cartilage that functioned normally.
I owe that research group a lot.
I too have a shoulder tendon issue: 14 months ago a loud one-time "pop" occurred while doing a simple external rotation shoulder exercise with very light weight. I immediately lost most strength lhs and the shoulder felt very loose. More than a year later + 1 steroid shot my shoulder is much better but still loose.
YouTube and Physical Therapy combined with the UC David protocol has brought back more strength and mobility than I've ever had.
My main issue I had before was I kept pushing my injury too hard without proper remodeling.
The UC Davis protocol requires a specific isometric, loaded stretch while dosing Vitamin C and Type 2 Collagen an hour before isometrics.
It took about 6 months before I felt it getting significantly better, and I'm not fully healed yet, but I can actually throw balls to my kids without feeling my injury now.
[Tim Ferriss podcast re Baars' work at
https://tim.blog/2025/02/27/dr-keith-baar-transcript/
and "dastratman" has produced an excellent summary of Baars' and Ferriss' discussions:
https://hackmd.io/@dastratman/rygQhSmhke ]
I searched your old HN posts and found that you've explained this before to HN denizens! Thank you, thank you so much!
FWIW I've never been able to throw w/o shoulder pain and, now that you mention it, I may make it my goal to build up to that!
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adx6649
Inhibition of 15-hydroxy prostaglandin dehydrogenase promotes cartilage regeneration Mamta Singla https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6408-1167, Yu Xin Wang https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8440-9388, Elena Monti https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3767-0855, Yudhishtar Bedi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1213-4116, [...] , and Nidhi Bhutani https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7494-5870
FTFA: "Both systemic and local inhibition of 15-PGDH with a small molecule inhibitor (PGDHi) led to regeneration of articular cartilage and reduction in OA-associated pain."
"PGDHi" is a name for both the process "15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase inhibition" and any inhibitor.
This link(a PDF file) shows PGDHi's are powerful stuff:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2025/04/17/202...
"PGDHi" could be prostaglandin-E2 (dinoprostone):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostaglandin_E2
which was used in:
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/06/muscle-aging....
Would appreciate any advice here :)
And, intrigued about the idea of not using key switches at all. Are there any aftermarket alternatives available online for "keycaps" that are better at softening the impact on the finger, something softer and bouncier perhaps? Seems like something people would have experimented with.
One thing I discovered about lightweight springs is that lubing the switch doesn't work at all, it just stops resetting. I also think that with traditional MX-style switches going with weight less than 20g might not work out well because even with 20g springs some of my keys are not resetting properly, they remain stuck when I lift my finger, and I get "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"s instead of just "a" for example.
As for removing keycaps, my keyboard looks like this: m.youtube.com/watch?v=647FeK3\_Bek, except I left the spacebar keycap on, and I have a small piece of adhesive plaster tape on top of the plastic parts that resembles a plus sign "+" on every switch to increase friction. But I don't think removing keycaps works for switches box type switches with stems that look like [+]. I also had to open the space bar switch and add a little aluminum foil ring inside where the spring is located because it consistently wouldn’t reset.
Lightweight springs also slightly reduce the key travel distance, and the actuation point becomes very high, practically no actuation point. It produces a keystroke the moment you touch it. This is now possible with harder springs too with the advent of Hall effect keyboards, but the lightest spring available for that type of keyboard is 28g, which is a bit too heavy.
I've also enjoyed Topre switches in the past, I remember those feeling pretty light as well, although I can't quite recall how my injured joints worked with them, that was in the healthy days.
Everyone with it I've ever talked to said staying moving is important: "motion is lotion."
My elderly family use lots of anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) and one of them is on Prednisone.
Two of my friends with rheumatoid arthritis (only in their 30's) are on an injectable immunotherapies (DMARDs) that have been life changing for them.
Disclaimer: not a doctor, just have lots of sore friends/family and an interest in this stuff since I have a torn ACL and fear the future.
Two most common types are osteoarthritis (wear-and-tear associated with aging and/or injuries) and rheumatoid arthritis (autoimmune).
I only know about age-related knee osteoarthritis to try to help my mom manage her symptoms, so I'll share my understanding of treating that.
High ROI, low cost: - weight management. Extra lbs are extra stress on the knees, plus I suspect chronic inflammation associated with being overweight can exacerbate arthritis independent of mechanical stress. - exercise, specifically low impact cardio and any pain-free strength/hypertrophy work targeting the musculature around the knees (mainly quads).
Variable ROI, low cost: - NSAIDs, specifically topical to focus on treatment area and reduce impact on GI system/kidneys. - curcumin, mixed evidence but some people report benefits.
Variable ROI, high cost: - PRP injections. Apparently the quality on these varies dramatically by provider. Would recommend doing research and comparing multiple providers if possible. - Knee replacement. Far from a panacea; you'll lose range of motion forever, plus plenty of other trade-offs. Most people recommend putting this off for as long as possible.
Also interesting is low dose radiation treatment for knee OA. More affordable than other procedures and has some promising research.
Not much else on the novel treatment front that I've found. Curious if anyone thinks I've missed anything worthwhile.
On the advice of a massage therapist I instead started a habit of using a home cycling machine for half an hour each morning. So far, it has worked wonders for me, and I hope I can hold on for a decade more, by which time the injection mentioned in the article might be ready for humans.
Looking forward to this therapy. My fibrocartilage is wearing out!
they are just insanely expensive in the USA because of drug patents
> Human knee tissue collected during joint replacement surgeries also responded positively to the treatment. These samples, which include both the joint’s supporting extracellular scaffolding, or matrix, and cartilage-producing chondrocyte cells, began forming new cartilage that functioned normally.